Local government in the United States is structured in accordance with the laws of the various individual states, territories, and the District of Columbia. Typically each state has at least two separate tiers of local government: counties and municipalities. Some states further have their counties divided into townships. There are several different types of local government at the municipal level, generally reflecting the needs of different levels of population densities; typical examples include the city, town, borough, and village. The types and nature of these municipal entities varies from state to state. Many rural areas and even some suburban areas of many states have no municipal government below the county level, while others do not operate under a distinct county government at all. In other places the different tiers are merged, for example as a consolidated city–county in which city and county functions are managed by a single municipal government, or in the case of towns in New England, which in some states have completely replaced the county as the unit of local government.
The local governments described above are classified general purpose local governments by the United States Census Bureau. In addition, there are also often local or regional special purpose local governments. Special purpose governments include special districts that exist for specific purposes, such as to provide fire protection, sewer service, transit service or to manage water resources, and in particular school districts to manage schools. Such special purpose districts often encompass areas in multiple municipalities.
Read more about Local Government In The United States: History of Local Government in The United States, Types of Local Government, Councils or Associations of Governments, Dillon's Rule, Institutions, Indian Reservations, Census of Local Government, Examples of Local Government in Individual States
Famous quotes containing the words united states, local, government, united and/or states:
“The popular colleges of the United States are turning out more educated people with less originality and fewer geniuses than any other country.”
—Caroline Nichols Churchill (1833–?)
“The difference between de jure and de facto segregation is the difference open, forthright bigotry and the shamefaced kind that works through unwritten agreements between real estate dealers, school officials, and local politicians.”
—Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924)
“... until both employers’ and workers’ groups assume responsibility for chastising their own recalcitrant children, they can vainly bay the moon about “ignorant” and “unfair” public criticism. Moreover, their failure to impose voluntarily upon their own groups codes of decency and honor will result in more and more necessity for government control.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“An alliance is like a chain. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it. A great power like the United States gains no advantage and it loses prestige by offering, indeed peddling, its alliances to all and sundry. An alliance should be hard diplomatic currency, valuable and hard to get, and not inflationary paper from the mimeograph machine in the State Department.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“[Urging the national government] to eradicate local prejudices and mistaken rivalships to consolidate the affairs of the states into one harmonious interest.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)